Drivers upset about refusal "to enforce the law and kowtowing to Uber."

London's black cabs are planning to protest against TfL for not enforcing regulations that should apply to minicabs to smartphone taxi service Uber.

The Licensed Taxi Drivers Association(LTDA) is not happy that Uber cabs calculate fares through apps on mobile phones, which the LTDA argues count as meters, which aren't allowed in London minicabs.

"Private hire vehicles in London aren't allowed meters. Minicabs don't need one because you pre-book them," explains the LTDA's Steve McNamara, adding that Uber does this so it can charge different fares at different times—surge charging.

Uber's General Manager in the UK and Ireland Jo Bertram pointed Wired.co.uk to aTfL statement where it declared that "smartphones used by private hire drivers—which act as GPS tracking devices to measure journey distances and relay information so that fares can be calculated remotely from the vehicle—do not constitute the equipping of a vehicle with a taxi meter."

The second area of complaint is around the interpretation of the rules around minicab licensing, which requires the receiver of the booking to have a license. The LTDA argues that individual Uber cab drivers receive bookings and that Uber acts more like PayPal. As a result, it argues that the individual drivers need licenses, and not just Uber. Uber contests this and says that it takes the bookings and that it has an operators license.

"It's like when you buy a saucepan online and you use PayPal to pay for it. Your transaction is with the guy you bought the saucepan from, not with PayPal," McNamara told Wired.co.uk. "With Uber, the guy taking the booking is the operator and so needs a license and a licensed operating center which can't be a car."

"One day there'll be a major accident in one of these cars and there will be a multimillion pound claim and an insurance company will look at it and say that the hiring didn't take place through a licensed operating center so it won't be insured," he added.

Bertram points out that the intention of the law is to protect passengers and that there are many public safety measures that technology like Uber's can bring. "The point of knowing who accepts the booking is so that there's traceability. We have the name, photo and registration of the driver, you can share a live map of the journey with family and friends and get a full copy of the details in a receipt."

Despite these complaints about Uber, the LTDA says its main issue is with Transport for London (TfL): "Our beef is with TfL, not Uber—it's just another minicab firm, the new kid on the block. TFL is not enforcing the law. We have to jump through lots of hoops and laws and so do minicabs. Most of us comply with the laws and regulations and if we don't we have TfL all over us." McNamara speculates that TfL is frightened of Uber because it came in with funding from Amazon's Jeff Bezos and Goldman Sachs with "lots of sharp lawyers" and "TfL just rolled over."

Wired.co.uk questioned whether some of the rules around whether London's cabs could have meters could be changed. McNamara said: "Yes they could, but in the meantime it's illegal."

"I'd be happy if Uber complied with the same rules as everybody else. All we are asking for is a level playing field." To complain about these issues, there's going to be a mass demonstration in central London of between 8,000 and 12,000 black cabs, who will cause "chaos, congestion and confusion."

McNamara says: "This demonstration is against TfL for them refusing to enforce the law and kowtowing to Uber."

In Bertram's eyes, the protest is "a little bit ironic". "The taxi industry is talking about bringing London to a stand still while Uber is trying to take people from A to B as quickly as possible."

This isn't the first time that Uber has faced challenges from incumbent taxi services. It's been banned in Brussels and has been targeted by protests in the US and Paris. Bertram puts this down to fear of competition. "We are bringing competition to a market that hasn't been shaken up for years in most countries and markets, providing a choice for both customers and drivers."